1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to tube adaptors for centrifuge rotor buckets and, more particularly, to adaptors for use in centrifuge rotor buckets for maximizing the number of cylindrical test tubes positionable in the bucket.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A common type of centrifuge rotor includes carriers or buckets supported on trunnion pins disposed at the ends of outwardly extending arms. One centrifuge rotor of this type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,791 issued Mar. 27, 1973 to Herschel E. Wright for Centrifuge Rotor With Removable Trunnion Pins and assigned to Beckman Instruments, Inc., Fullerton, Calif., the assignee of the present application. These buckets are adapted to receive samples to be separated into their constituent components under the influence of centrifugal forces. With power applied to the drive shaft of the centrifuge thereby rotating the rotor arms, each bucket swings outwardly until the axis thereof is perpendicular to the rotational axis of the rotor.
It is common to first position the samples either in one high capacity bottle or in a multitude of smaller bottles or test tubes held in position by an adaptor. While no particular problem results from the use of one high capacity bottle, several problems have occured with adaptors used heretofore.
In the past, available tube adaptors for centrifuge rotor buckets have permitted the use of a number of test tubes in a given cavity which is far less than the optimum capacity of the cavity. Previously, it was the practice to support each test tube around the entire circumference thereof and for substantially the entire length thereof. Thus existing adaptors have been substantial structures, of significant weight. Furthermore, existing tube adaptors have been expensive to fabricate. Still an additional problem has been a convenient and simple means for loading, stacking, and removing the adaptor and the test tubes from the centrifuge rotor buckets.